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Re: Potassium Iodide Symposium -Thyroid Radiation Risk
Dear Bobbi Smith:
I saw your note below posted to the Radsafe bulletin board. Perhaps, since the
focus of this upcoming meeting is thyroid disease risk from radiation exposure,
the American Thyroid Association should insist on a concurrent discussion of the
documented thyroid health risks [among other head and neck diseases both
malignant and non-malignant] of Nasal Radium Irradiation [NRI], a medical
procedure which was developed at Johns Hopkins and used to treat enlarged
adenoids in military personnel in WWII and children in vast numbers after WWII.
The CDC has reported in a published paper by one of its staff when they were
forced to evaluate this issue following a hearing by Senator Lieberman of the
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the NRI issue, that no fewer
than 571,000 US children [in their lo-lo bounding case, and perhaps as many as
1,000,000 in their hi-hi estimate] received NRI from post-WWII through the early
1960s alone [although the practice continued well into the 1970s in some locales
like Maryland where it was so entrenched due to so many Maryland physicians
having been trained in this procedure at Johns Hopkins during their medical
studies.
Studies completed at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health as Ph.D theses [see
Sandler, 1979 and Yeh, 1995 in Annotated Bibliography supplied in the link to the
REAP webpage below] show statistically significant increases in thyroid disease
[thyrotoxicosis RR = 8.6, p<<0.01] as well as significant excesses of head and
neck cancer, benign and malignant brain tumors [combined malignant and benigh RR
= 30.9 vs. control group; RR for brain cancer alone = 14.8], cancer of the soft
palete [RR = 14 ] and a host of other health effects.
Despite these adverse health findings to NRI treated children from case-
controlled epidemiological studies conducted at Johns Hopkins School of Public
Health at a hearing loss prevention center run by Johns Hopkins in Hagerstown,
MD, Johns Hopkins Hospitals and the CDC have falsely maintained [by simpling
ignoring the published research including Yeh, 2001
(see: Am J Epidemiol 2001 Apr 15;153(8):749-56 "Cancer incidence after childhood
nasopharyngeal radium irradiation: a follow-up study in Washington County,
Maryland" Yeh H, Matanoski GM, Wang Ny, Sandler DP, Comstock GW) ]
that there is "no significant neoplastic or other disease risk from NRI" and has
refused to promote medical notice and followup for the huge domestic population
at risk. There exists a standing NIH/NCI recommendation [See "Irradiation Related
Thyroid Cancer -Information for Physicians" -1972] that any child who is part of
this special NRI population-at-risk and had "unusual head and neck irradiation"
including NRI should be notified by the treating physician or hospital of the
need for a thorough head and neck exam and recalled for exam initially and for
every one to two years for the rest of their lives. In the absence of detailed
records allowing recall of each treated person, the NIH/NCI recommended a broad
public education campaign to advise the population at risk treated with NRI of
the need for followup medical exams. Despite this, Johns Hopkins Hospitals has
refused such notice and when advised of the NIH/NCI recommendation for medical
notice and followup for NRI treated children answered as follows:
"Just what do you want us to do here? Rent the Goodyear blimp?"
Source of above "statement": [Dr. Mark Richardson, Chief of Endocrinology
Department, Johns Hopkins Hospitals -designated spokesman for Johns Hopkins on
the NRI issue - As stated to a Washington Post Reporter, Fern Shen during a 1998
interview regarding a bill introduced into the Maryland legislature to establish
a Task Force to study the Health Effects of NRI on the People of Maryland]. This
proposed bill passed the Maryland Senate in 1998 but was actively lobbied against
by Johns Hopkins, bottled up in a House Committee such that it never came to a
vote on the House floor, and thus killed.
The US Veterans Administration has declared WWII era submariners and Army Air
Force personnnel who receive NRI irradition at lower doses than children after
WWII to be eligible for priority medical care and inclusion on the VA's Ionizing
Radiation Registry. Despite this token action on behalf of treated veterans by
the VA, the CDC callously continues to ignore the NRI issue on behalf of treated
children and even lobbied against the State of Massachusetts having issued a
Public Health Advisory to all 27,000 physicians in Massachusetts as to the health
risks of NRI and the need for an extra "degree of suspicion" in examining adults
treated as children with NRI. The failure of the CDC and Johns Hopkins to act
responsibly and ethically on the NRI issue [and to actively oppose scientifically
based decision making on the issue] should not be allowed to continue.
The American Thyroid Association should investigate the documented health risks
associated with Nasal Radium Irradiation to no fewer than 571,000 American
children [now around 55 years old on average] who received this ill-advised
medical treatment and take aggressive action to provide scientifically and
medically sound guidance to the population at risk.
Although the information on the hyperlink below is a bit dated, it provides a
look at a former webpage on the NRI issue with an Annotated Bibliography which
may be of use in reviewing this important issue.
http://web.archive.org/web/20010628170738/www0.delphi.com/carsreap/
The above link is a snapshot of the REAP webpage which was accessed from a novel
search engine web.archive.org which can locate and access stored webpages that
are not currently on-line.
Very truly yours,
Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
Consulting Scientist
formerly Director - Radium Experiment Assessment Project [REAP]
1285 Wood Avenue
Bridgeport, CT 06604
203-367-0791
email: farbersa@optonline.net
==============
12/17/02 9:57:28 AM, Bobbi Smith <bsmith@thyroid.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 12:57:28 -0500
> From: Bobbi Smith <bsmith@thyroid.org>
> Subject: Potassium Iodide Symposium
> To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
> Organization:American Thyroid Association
>
>
>
> Please share this announcement with interested colleagues:
>
>
> Public Health Strategies for Protecting the Thyroid
>
> with Potassium Iodide in the Event of a Nuclear Incident
>
>
> A symposium of the American Thyroid Association (ATA)
>
> Friday, February 28, 2003
>
>
> Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill
>
> Washington, DC
>
>
> Visit http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/cme/events/PubHlthThyroid.html for
> program and registration information.
>
>
> For further information on potassium iodide, go tohttp://www.thyroid.org/
> publications/statements/ki/index.html
>
>
> CME sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in
> conjunction with the ATA
>
> Supported by the ATA and the American Association of Clinical
> Endocrinologists (AACE)
>
>
>
>
> Barbara R. Smith, CAE
> Executive Director
> American Thyroid Association
> 6066 Leesburg Pike, Suite 650
>
> Falls Church, VA 22041
>
> Phone: 703 998-8890
> Fax: 703 998-8893
> E-mail: bsmith@thyroid.org
>
> Visit the ATA on the web at www.thyroid.org
>
>
>
>
> ---
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